Wellness sabbaticals are a hot trend. Here’s one way to profit. By Vivienne O’Keeffe, CIBTAC, AAD, PEA When he was still running Microsoft, Bill Gates would take a week off twice a year to spend quiet time alone in a small cabin in a forest in the Pacific Northwest. He called it his ’think week.’ Like so many other active, successful people, Gates learned there’s nothing like time away from the tangle of everyday life (or the paralyzing...

Prepare and prosper in a post-pandemic paradigm By Vivienne O’Keeffe, CIBTAC, AAD, PEA Regular readers will be aware of my belief that trends should be a component of everyone’s business strategy. Now, as the end (fingers crossed!) of the coronavirus pandemic approaches and leaves behind a changed civilization, it’s more important than ever to get a glimpse of the big picture. For this article, I have combined my own observations with those of...

Changing times bring changing needs. Will you be ready? By Vivienne O’Keeffe, CIBTAC, AAD, PEA “If what we learn is no more than what we expect to learn, then we have learned nothing at all.” That quote from John H. Lienhard, the American engineer, broadcaster and public speaker, is in itself a learning opportunity. It tells me that if we think we’ll be going back to business as usual after the pandemic is over, then we’ll be no further ahead....

Canada’s first ActivMD Derm Spa™ advances the art – and science ­– of skin wellness. By Vivienne O’Keeffe, CIBTAC, AAD, PEA In my three+ decades as a spa consultant I’ve dealt with all kinds of businesses, from sprawling hotel-based super chains to tiny wellness facilities. So when Dr. Jaggi Rao and his wife Dr. Namita Rao called me to see how I could help them turn empty office space next to their flourishing dermatology practice into a...

Helping your clients survive the pandemic. By Vivienne O’Keeffe, CIBTAC, AAD, PEA Question: what’s taking a bigger hit from the lockdowns, the economy or mental health? Although the answer is debatable, we do know that many people have been emotionally scarred. Since the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic on March 11, Google has been reporting major jumps in global searches related to anxiety on topics ranging from mental...

A healing art you can offer online. By Vivienne O’Keeffe, CIBTAC, AAD, PEA. In my 26 years as a professional spa consultant I’ve encountered more kinds of healing practices than you can shake a massage stick at, from ayurveda to qiqong, chelation therapy, reflexology, hydrotherapy and dozens more. But there’s one I’ve always considered to be lurking on the sketchy fringes, like a fly-by-night airline or miracle hair growth tonic. Shaminism was...